Seedling Update

Our little seeds are doing well. They are now little plants.

Here are the Superbowl Sunday seeds after 2 weeks.

Here are the seeds I started last week:

Pretty soon we'll be planting our lettuce and spinach seeds outside!

One Week Later

The seeds Phil started last week started growing already! Some of the tomatoes, peppers, and the broccoli came up. I think the broccoli was first.

I started a new tray today with yellow pear tomatoes, banana peppers, marigolds, and two types of zinnias. I also found some seeds from last year!

Phil has been busy putting in a new side door today. He has been working super hard. 

Besides starting new seeds, I've been trying my hand at making my very first homemade sauce. I already know one thing I need to do differently next time, but I still think it is going to be delicious.

Seed Starting

Last week Phil got a little case of cabin fever, so we went out int he FREEZING cold to buy seeds and mini-greenhouses to start some seeds in. We got 3 types of tomatoes (Roma, Beefsteak, and Cherry), two types of peppers (jalapeño and bell - we forgot banana!), eggplant, and broccoli. 

We started our seeds on Sunday, Feb 6 (Super Bowl Sunday!).

We decided to do 6 pods of cherry tomatoes, 6 pods of roma tomatoes, 8 pods of beefsteak, 4 of eggplan, 4 of broccoli, 4 bell, and 4 jalapeño. We based this on the plan we have for our garden and how many plants we think we'll need. I am hoping we guessed/planned correctly. We still have one more greenhouse that we can start some seeds in, we just need to figure out what.

So now our little seeds are living in the basement, under a lamp and hopefully we'll start to see a little green soon.

What is Square Foot Gardening?

I had never heard of Sqaure Foot Gardening until the day Phil and Wes put in our beds. Wes had a book on it  and is letting us borrow it. I'm not much of a non-fiction reader so I told Phil he had to do the reading for this because there was no way I'd make it 10 pages in without getting bored and putting it down.

According to Wikipedia Square Foot Gardening is:

Is the practice of planning small but intensively planted gardens. The phrase "square foot gardening" was  popularized by Mel Bartholomew in a 1981 Rodale Press book and subsequent PBS television series. The practice combines concepts from other organic gardening methods, including a strong focus on compost, closely planted raised beds and biointensive attention to a small, clearly defined area. Proponents claim that the method is particularly well-suited for areas with poor soil, beginning gardeners.

I'm definitely not an expert and haven't done any reading on this, but from what I can tell you separate your garden into square foot sections. You grow a different plan in each square and after harvesting you plant a different type of plan in that square.

You can learn more at http://www.squarefootgardening.org/.

How it All Began

Oct 3: The beginning: Raised beds about
a week after Phil and Wes built them.

One day in late September, I was out running errands with my mom, aunts, and sister-in-law to be. We went to a wedding dress shop and Laura modeled a few dresses. We went to get supplies for the quads first birthday. Meanwhile, Phil was hanging out with our friend Wes. Wes is who inspired me to put together the little container garden I had last year.

I guess they weren't sure what they wanted to do so they decided to put in a couple of raised garden beds in our backyard. I, of course, found out that this was happening well after it was all underway. We have been talking about doing a garden forever. I really pushed for it, but Phil always said it was a lot of work. I have Wes to thank for getting Phil into the idea.

Throughout the rest of the fall, we filled the beds with soil we got from the park near our house. We also composted vegetable scraps, egg shells, and coffee grounds directly in the beds. We have had more snow than usual this winter so for the last few weeks the beds have been covered in ice and snow.

2010: Attempt at container
gardening on the patio.

My experience with containers last year was mediocre. I attempted to grow tomatoes, bell peppers, jalapeños, green beans, zucchini, and cucumbers. The zucchini and cucumbers failed pretty miserable. They had a promising start but I think they didn't have enough room. The peppers grew so easily and produced very well. The tomatoes I had higher hopes for but I'm blaming the squirrels. Some kind of pest that I never laid eyes on ate holes in my beans and they ended up dying.

I think I learned some good lessons from my experience last year. Especially, that things can go wrong and what kind of things. And sometimes it's out of your control.

I'm letting Phil make a lot of decisions and do most of the planning for this year's garden. The only thing I really want are LOTS OF TOMATOES!